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The Summer Bank Holiday (also known as the August bank holiday) is in a couple of weeks. We have left it too late to book anything, and I was looking the other night at possible places where we could go for a short break, but everything was fully booked or stupidly expensive.

So I think we’re going to do the easy option, which is doing a couple of day visits to places nearby.

What have I got in mind?

The isle of Wight.

It is near enough but would entail a lot of travelling. We would have to drive to Southampton (approx. 45 minutes) and take the ferry to the Isle of Wight (depending on the ferry and service, it could be an extra hour journey). Then, once in the Isle of Wight I would like to go and see the Needles. I have already been on the island a couple of times when I was living in Portsmouth, but I always visited the east coast only. Ideally we would stop in a little village to have lunch, see the Needles and a bit more of the west coast and head back home. It sounds like a nice little trip, but there’s lots of travelling involved.

Oxford.

I have visited Oxford once before, when I was 19; but I must admit that I do not remember much. I visited with a girl that I was on my same English course, but she was a bit of a moaner, and she spent the whole trip complaining about something or other, which spoiled my day a bit. So I would like to go back and actually see it properly this time. It will probably be a bit busy with tourists, but I have learnt to ignore them.

Oxford is only an hour’s drive from us, with the added bonus of park and ride, which makes visiting a small town so much more convenient, so you don’t have to worry about car parking.

Wells.

Wells is probably the one the furthest away and would probably need an overnight stay to actually make the most of it. It is two hours drive away (that, when compared to the trip to the Isle of Wight, is actually not that much worse).

I had never heard of Wells until I watched the TV series of Pillars of the Earth. In the last episode they show an aerial view of what the fictitious cathedral would have looked like in modern times and, after asking around, I discovered that it was actually Wells cathedral and not a computer generated one.

I’ve got a thing for cathedrals (and castles), they fascinate me. I can spend hours looking at their structure, figuring out how they were built, with all the intricate details and features. So finally visiting Wells cathedral would be awesome.

Good thing that I really love this country and I am happy to go anywhere to visit!